


I Thought I Was Dreaming

by theredhood



Category: Fantastic Four, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 21:31:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17609369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhood/pseuds/theredhood
Summary: “Hey, you with me?” Johnny asks before he can space out entirely. Peter nods and cracks an eye open, looking down at him. There’s a soft glow across his face and Peter notices the little rope of flame he'd created that was floating a few inches from his side, illuminating the cut. He’d never really seen Johnny use his powers like that except for skywriting and a part of him really wants to reach out and touch it but he knows better.





	I Thought I Was Dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> prompt given!: spideytorch + 49 and 56 !!: “Take off your shirt.” “Would you just hold still?”

Peter had always been a heavy sleeper. It was something he’d been kinda proud of as a kid, the fact that he could sleep through anything. As he’d started high school, and then later his side job as Spidey, he’d become even more attached to the fact that very few things could stir him. Except right now, laying on a roof across the street from the Baxter Building at 3 AM, he was beyond relieved not everybody was like him. 

Peter laid there for a few seconds, pressing a hand against the gash in his side, trying to regulate his breathing. His head was swimming but he needed to push, needed to go just a little further to safety. With a sigh, Peter pushes himself up, forcing himself upright. Not wanting to give the pain a second to catch up, he takes off towards the edge of the roof as fast as he can. As he winds up for the jump, he picks out Johnny’s room almost instantly; right corner three floors from the top. He’d memorized the location the first time Johnny had invited him over and it had become second nature to spot the window when he’d swing by. 

He leaps off the building without a second thought, letting himself fall through the air briefly before letting out a stream of web and catching himself. The cold air distracts him from the ache in his side and for the stretch of time it takes for him to swing he forgets the cuts there at all. It isn’t until he connects with the Baxter Building a little too roughly and his stomach lurches forward that he’s aware of it again. He allows himself a second to rest his head against the smooth glass to force his nausea back down before he climbs up the last few floors. 

Peter doesn’t really think about how Johnny’s gonna feel about waking up to his best friend bleeding until he’s already prying the window open. By the time he’s crawling through, though, Johnny’s already rolling over and smiling sleepily at him. “Kinda late for a bootycall isn’t it, Spidey-” he laughs, voice soft and slow like honey from sleep, but he cuts off further joking when he actually gets a look at Peter. “Spidey, dude,” he says a little louder as he throws himself across the room to help Peter find his footing. “Are you okay?”

Peter’s only response is a groan that emits from deep within his chest as he’s gently guided towards the edge of Johnny’s bed. The broke college kid in him wants to say something about not getting blood on Johnny’s sheets and having to buy new ones but he’s distracted by Johnny kneeling in front of him and gently prying Peter’s hand off his right side. He closes his eyes and lets the back of his head hit the wall, trusting Johnny to take care of him. He hears Johnny moving around in the background and Peter assumes he’s grabbing the first aid kit that’s pretty much only been used on him since Johnny got it. 

“Hey, you with me?” Johnny asks before he can space out entirely. Peter nods and cracks an eye open, looking down at him. There’s a soft glow across his face and Peter notices the little rope of flame he'd created that was floating a few inches from his side, illuminating the cut. He’d never really seen Johnny use his powers like that except for skywriting and a part of him really wants to reach out and touch it but he knows better. “I need to see more of it,” Johnny adds, cutting off Peter’s train of thought before it steams ahead, “can you take off your shirt?”

Peter nods and pulls himself forward off the wall. He reaches back to unzip his costume but his side flares up with the twisting motion and he stops, “can you, uh, give me a hand?” Johnny nods and gets up from where he was kneeling next to the bed in front of Peter. He leans forward and Peter can’t help but watch Johnny’s mouth as it comes closer to his before Johnny goes more diagonal so he can reach around and unzip Peter’s costume. When Johnny pulls away and helps peel the costume from Peter’s shoulders he shudders a bit and not just from the lack of insanely warm body heat that comes from the other hero. Peter knows he’s verging on being obvious about his crush on Johnny but he’s too out of it to actually doing anything about it.

Once the costume is off his shoulders, Peter takes over and strips the rest of it off his arms and rolls it down so it pools at his waist. He tries to look anywhere that isn’t Johnny cleaning up the wound, settling on the wall adjacent to them. He’s never really liked seeing his own injuries, something about seeing it with his own eyes made him feel queasier. It made the injuries more permanent, more real. 

“What the fuck even happened?” Johnny asks, pressing a cloth soaked in disinfectant on the cut, eliciting a hiss from Peter. He still doesn’t look at him, eyes fixed on the photo of Peter, She-Hulk, and the rest of the Four that’s sitting on Johnny’s dresser rather than at Johnny himself. He sounds worried and Peter can’t help but feel awful about being the reason why. It’s not until Johnny puts more pressure and channels a little more heat into his fingers that Peter remembers the question. 

“Got caught up in a fight against the Hand with Daredevil,” he starts. He’s breathing a little heavy and it worsens when Johnny starts the first suture. His eyes briefly flutter close and Johnny pauses for a second. He rests his hand right above Peter’s knee and gives a quick, encouraging squeeze, which finally draws Peter’s attention to him. Johnny looks just as concerned as Peter expected… which hurts just as much as he thought. Peter lifts the bottom of his mask up and over his nose, then offers Johnny the best smile he can to let him know he’s okay.  “I had followed Bullseye into Hell’s Kitchen and I guess he’d been working with Madame Gao or something. Bullseye got me with a shuriken pretty bad. I’d have asked Daredevil for help but he seemed preoccupied with chasing after him.”

“You’re a dumbass,” Johnny mumbled, moving his hand to squeeze Peter’s non blood-covered one. Peter hums in agreement and squeezes back. Johnny doesn’t let go yet and instead rubs his thumb against the back of Peter’s hand before going back to his work on Peter’s side. They were quiet until Johnny finished his stitches and Peter was grateful that he didn’t have the chance to embarrass himself. “I’m glad you have such a strong healing factor,” he adds a little while longer while he pulls out a disinfectant wipe. “God knows much worse this could’ve been if you’d been normal.”

“If I was normal-” he cuts himself off with a _hiss_  when Johnny passes over the cut with the wipe, “I wouldn’t be out with a spider on my chest every night.”

“Yeah, but then you wouldn’t know the amazing Human Torch,” Johnny points out with a pleased smile. Pretty much everything about Johnny warmed Peter up, literally and figuratively, but his smile was something else entirely. Peter had decided a long time ago that a smiling Johnny was his favorite version of the Fantastic Four member and he wanted to see it as often as he could. 

“Actually,” Peter begins, voice quiet. He pauses before he can finish the rest of that sentence, unsure if he wants to continue. He wants to tell Johnny that they’ve met a couple of times outside of Spider-Man but… it’s a big step to tell somebody who you really are. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Johnny, he trusts Johnny with every bit of himself, but it’s daunting nonetheless. Part of him doesn’t want to drag Johnny into the Spider shitshow he’s been leading since he was 15 and another part thinks Johnny’s seen enough shit since the Fantastic Four started. It’s selfish, but Peter’s kind of tired of keeping a part of him from Johnny. The Fantastic Four has basically become the Fantastic Five after all the times it’s been them and Peter against the world, it’d be unfair to keep them shut out. “You’ve… seen me out of costume a few times.”

It’s with that statement that Johnny switches from worried best friend to the usual menace he is. “Oh?” he asks, a curious half grin forming on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. _That_  was also a face Peter was really tied to. Something about Johnny smirking and teasing always wound him up and even now was no exception. “That better not be the only information you’re willing to share, Spidey.”

“And what if it is?” he asks, returning the teasing tone, as Johnny comes around and sits next to him on the bed. “What’re you gonna do? Set your sheets on fire? Call in Sue to yell at me?”

Johnny gasps, mock hurt, as he brings his hand up to his chest, “that’s no way to talk to the gorgeous nurse who just saved your life!” Peter laughs and smiles softly at Johnny, amused by his boasting. The light from the strand of fire Johnny flamed was starting to dim and had cast a soft glow onto Johnny’s face. Johnny had always been pretty but Peter loved how Johnny looked when it was them alone, them without the harsh lights of camera flashes or the fluorescents in Reed’s lab. “If anything, Spider-Man,” Johnny starts up again, jabbing a finger into Peter’s chest, “you owe me considering you broke into my room and bled on my drapes, floor, and who knows what else.”

“I don’t know, Torch… you know I love to make things difficult for you.”

Johnny rolls his eyes and bumps their shoulders together but doesn’t pull back, “you sound like most of my exes.” There’s a pause, “you’re not one of my exes are you?” 

“I’m too good for you, Johnathan,” Peter jokes with a dramatic sigh but he knows that’s far from the truth. Johnny was always so willing to be there for Peter and never gave him too much shit about how flaky he was or how guarded he was about getting others involved in his life. 

“Okay, then, Mr. Perfect,” he muses, leaning back onto his hands, “where else have we met?”

Peter worries his bottom lip between his teeth, unsure of himself again suddenly. Was he ready for Johnny to know? Would he make fun of him when he found out who Peter really was? “You came to my high school once.”

“Please don’t tell me that was one of the few times Sue made me give speeches,” he groans, suddenly getting red. “That was like right after I had gotten my powers and I thought I was hot shit. Literally.”

“I thought you were cool,” Peter mumbles because he had. Johnny had looked perfect in his light blue Fantastic Four uniform standing in the muddy colours of the auditorium at Midtown High with his bright smile and perfect hair... “I had, uh, actually talked to you after that.”

“Please tell me I didn’t say anything stupid,” Johnny half-groans, half-whines. It’s kind of endearing seeing him embarrassed and it’s practically downright hilarious that he thinks he could be more embarrassing than Peter had been. 

      With a shake of his head, Peter waves him off, “dude, if you remembered who I was you’d know nothing compares to what a fucking nerd I’d been.” Johnny throws his head back and laughs, light and lulling. There’s a small pause with Peter being both distracted by how sweet Johnny looks and because he’s not sure how much more to add. Johnny’s gentle demeanor urges him on, though. He loves seeing how unashamed Johnny is in his own skin, how unabashedly _Johnny_  he is. Peter wants the chance to be a part of that. “You’ve also seen me a few times while I was working for the Daily Bugle.” 

      It’s with that, that the smile on Johnny’s face grows a lot wider, and Peter knows he’s in for it now. Johnny would have to pick up on his secret after that, considering how Peter had weaseled his way into numerous events Johnny had attended when he’d first started out. Which _honestly_  hadn’t been all that difficult considering with his luck in taking Spidey-selfies, Jonah had just about put him on hero duty nonstop. Not that Peter had minded that much, it’d been kinda fun getting to attend the functions the Avengers didn’t invite him to anyways _while_  getting paid for it. 

“Bugle?” he asks, sitting upright. “You work for The Bugle and you let them post all those obnoxious articles about you? Does that mean you know that one hot photographer? Oh! Are you the reason you keep ranking higher than me on the Hero with the Best Ass list? What about-”

Instead of letting Johnny continue with his endless list of questions, Peter waves his hands a bit and cuts him off. “I _worked_  for The Bugle, I’m technically an intern at a science lab right now. And, uh, nobody can really change Jameson’s opinion on Spider-Man, nonetheless a random photographer- and hey! I worked hard for my ass placement.”

“Why be an intern when you could work as an actual scientist for Reed, though?”

“I wanted to earn my job, not have it handed to me just because-” he begins to explain but he cuts himself off at the remembrance of something Johnny said that had been lost in the middle of his stream of thought. “Hot photographer? Who?” he asks, curious and a little hopeful. There’d been a handful of photographers at the Bugle but not many that Johnny had come into contact with and even less that would be hot by any means Johnny. 

“Hmm,” Johnny hums, looking around the room like he’s trying to recall. He leans more into Peter’s space, almost to the point where he’s entirely supporting himself against him. “He was probably about my age, had really pretty eyes,” he angles his head a little, and Peter turns his own to get a better look at him, “damn, what was his name…” It happens in slow motion and Peter’s heart is loud as Johnny reaches a hand up to cup the side of Peter’s face to pull him the last couple inches. It’s not a heavy kiss, it just borders a little deeper than what could be classified as chaste, until Peter turns and presses a little harder. Johnny hums with content and matches Peter’s intensity, gripping the back of Peter’s neck. When he finally moves away, he pulls the Spider-Man mask off as he does so and smiles, “Peter Parker, maybe.” 

It takes Peter a few seconds to catch up, lips still buzzing, and suddenly unsure of how to go about everything. So, instead, all he says is, “yeah.”

“Yeah?” Johnny laughs with mirth, “all that and all you can say is _yeah_?” Peter just nods vigorously and blinks, making Johnny laugh again. “You,” he starts before pressing another kiss to Peter’s lips, “are a fucking dork.”

“Uhhh…” 

“If you say yeah again I’m gonna kick you out.”

“... okay.” Peter pauses, fidgeting slightly as he tries to figure out what he should say next. “How did- I mean- when did- _fuck_.” Another pause. “How?”

“Spider-Man talked about you a little too much, and at first I was jealous,” he mumbles, “but you’re the only person who calls me stupid nicknames like flamebrain and torchy, which you’ve done in and out of the suit. I didn’t know for sure, though, until you said you worked at The Bugle.”

“How do I even still have a secret identity…” Peter groans, covering his face with his hands. He hadn’t even thought about the fact that he talked the same as both Peter and Spider-Man. If he had teased Johnny the same ways in and out of the suit who knows what other minor ways he’s slipped up? Had he been saying things as Peter that only Spider-Man should know? Who knows who else was suspicious or catching on… 

Warm hands on his shoulders brought his attention back to the present and Peter brought his own hands to rest on Johnny’s. “Pete,” he started, voice soft and sweet, like Johnny was trying not to scare an animal away. “Don’t hurt yourself anymore than you already have tonight.”

“I don’t know,” Peter laughs, it’s a little shaky from the anxiety but his heart rate is beginning to steady, “I have a _gorgeous nurse_ , I think I’d kinda like having him kiss me better.”

“Hold still then,” Johnny murmurs, crowding into Peter’s space again. The next kiss is softer, like Johnny wants to take his time. He pulls back every now and then to press kisses across Peter’s face. Except, Johnny’s an asshole, which means that doesn’t last long. The kisses become deeper and the hand on the back of Peter’s neck moves up to his hair, which Johnny uses to his advantage by pulling a little to expose Peter’s throat. Johnny leans down fluidly and presses his mouth against one of the taut muscles there. It doesn’t take long for Peter to get with the program, pulling Johnny into his lap and wrapping his arms around his neck. Johnny laughs again, the sound vibrating against Peter’s skin, which just makes him wanna kiss him again. “Someone’s eager.”

“Somebody,” he responds, pulling Johnny up for another kiss, “has been wanting this since he was a junior.” Johnny laughs again, just as warm and welcoming as usual. He places a hand on Peter’s chest and without the thin layer his suit gives, Peter really notices just how _warm_  Johnny literally is. 

“ _Somebody_  also woke me up,” he points out. “So, you can either put on some sweatpants and fall asleep next to me, or you can put your suit back on fully and go home. Personally, I’d take the option where Ben will make you pancakes in the morning and you get to spend a night with Johnny fucking Storm.”

“I’ll take Johnny fucking Storm any day,” Peter obliges, and he’s never meant anything in his life more.


End file.
